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McLean beats the odds as a safe driving area

Andrew S. Avitt / Photo Editor:Although college drivers are often portrayed as dangerous drivers, McLean county is one of the least expensive places to obtain insurance on cars, which proves there are less accidents here than in other parts of Illinois.

College-age drivers are stereotypically thought of as reckless and distracted. However, this may not always be the case.

In Allstate Insurance’s annual America’s Best Drivers Report, which was released this month, two of the country’s top college towns ranked among the five safest driving cities.

It turns out the safest driving city according to Allstate is Fort Collins, Colo., location of Colorado State University.

The most unsafe location to drive, according to the Allstate report, is Washington D.C.

Although Bloomington-Normal was not on the top ten list, we too seem to be somewhat of a safe place to drive, according to a local State Farm agent. Students may not agree, on the other hand.

“Surprisingly we don’t have that many accident claims,” State Farm agent Michael Harris, said.

When students leave for the summer months, the town shrinks by about 25,000 individuals. Especially during those months the accidents are minimal, Harris explained.

“Right around when school gets back is when there are the most accidents. I’d say right in the first few weeks before classes get too heavy,” Harris said.

He attributed the higher accidents during this time to a possible higher percentage of students partying.

“We see more driving under the influence violations as opposed to crashes,” he added.

When school starts the town grows by about 25,000 people and about 7,000 to 8,000 of them bring vehicles, which may also add to why violations go up at the beginning of the school year, Harris added.

Harris also said McLean county is one of the least expensive areas to insure a vehicle, showing there are indeed less accidents than other parts of the state.

Harris believes a reason ISU is fairly safe is because police hand out a lot of speeding tickets and drivers are aware of the many pedestrians.

“Student drivers here also may not know their way around town because they only live here part of the year, so this may be why it’s fairly safe and they tend to drive slower,” he added.

Students on-campus tend to think ISU is semi-dangerous to walk in because of drivers.

“I drive for work on-campus but I feel like most drivers don’t look out for pedestrians even at crosswalks,” Kelsey Bishop, senior and public relations major, said. “But then again sometimes people walking are like zombies, so it may not be all the drivers fault.”

Jennifer Janssen, sophomore and undeclared major said she thinks in certain busier areas drivers are not the safest.

“Drivers don’t always look out for people who are walking,” Janssen said.

Emily Carpenter, senior and public relations major also said she felt on-campus drivers drive too fast in busy areas.

“I think they could always be safer. They need to look out for pedestrians more,” Carpenter said.

Harris said to drive safer be sure to back up, slow down and turn off your cell phone.

One Response

A lot of pedestrians aren’t safe either. The more dangerous ones walk wherever they please because they think they always have the right of way, simply due to being pedestrians, even if they’re actually jay-walking. I think it takes both drivers AND pedestrians to have a safer campus when it comes to traffic.